The critical need for special education in preschools

Education is something that is of as much importance for an average child as it is for a special one. The difference occurs in the ways and modes through which it may be delivered unto them. A unique child needs a little more time to learn things than an average child, and that too with extra care, caution, and compassion.

Approaches to impart special education in preschools

Concerning preschoolers with unique abilities, the responsibility of preschools to deliver education increases to a large extent. However, preschools can abide by specific teaching approaches through which education is enjoyable for these kids.

Building up a bond of compassion

Specially bled children are extra sensitive to human behaviour. They deserve more compassion than normal children. Preschool teachers should understand their children’s condition and must imbibe sensitivity and kindness in their approach to educating them.

Recruiting specialised trainers

The child needs of special kids differ from those of the normal ones. The familiar instructor in a preschool might suffer from specific difficulties in interacting with them. For this, the preschool must recruit certain child specialists who may have the necessary skills to teach and interact with exceptional children.

Joint cooperation of parents

Parents and the institution must foster cooperation in their approaches to special children. They must together promote such an environment of optimism and compassion, in which the kids might not encounter any hostile treatment for their abilities.

Promoting positive behaviour

Preschools should strive to develop an atmosphere where their peers, instructors, or teachers might not neglect special children. They should always be made to feel that they are equal to others and deserve the same treatment that normal kids deserve.

Tools to incorporate in preschools for special children

Besides incorporating specific approaches in special education, preschools may also integrate various tools in their curriculum, making learning more accessible for these kids.

AR/VR tools

The application of AR VR tools in the preschool curriculum is especially beneficial for those kids with limited auditory capacities. These tools make understanding concepts virtually easier through interactive virtual communication and graphically rich depictions.

Auditory aids

The active usage of auditory aids such as personalised speakers, audiobooks, and voice assistants, along with specific tools such as Speechify, Murf, or Descript, which may convert text into speech, can also yield considerable benefits for visually impaired kids because auditory communication is the only strength for them to bank on.

Natural exploration

Classroom teaching and natural exploration must go together.

With both of them, the other can bring entirely fruitful results. Special children deserve the ability to explore things naturally, with specialised assistance, to establish their familiarity with nature, like normal kids.

Fun activities and games

Activities like taking children for games, conducting singing or dance competitions, organising various picnic plans, and adventure trips may also make these children feel equal to their peers. This invites social interaction, eliminates boredom, and ignites curiosity and a natural urge for exploration.

The responsibility of parents in allowing their kids to indulge in the learning process holistically, like normal kids, is much greater than it seems.

Parents should always be mindful of avoiding unnecessary stuff like criticising their kids for their abilities, expecting ingenuine results from them, proving them inferior to other kids, or not attending to their child’s needs at all, or even drawing a line of difference between their unique child and the average kid, because the total of all these may either make their children worse than they were before, or develop a sense of disregard and dishonour for their parents, or even cause them to create an inferiority complex in them for their constructs.

They must remember that deciding one’s abilities is something beyond one’s choice and capacities and that every child is unique in their way. To provide them with the most qualitative life should be their parent’s foremost concern.

(The author is CEO & Founder of Makoons Group of Schools, Ghaziabad)